Chapter 283 - Without a trace

"And I really did that all by myself? Interesting." The Demon muttered quietly as he wrote everything down in the notebook that he was told by Clark right next to him. Of course, some information was still lost through the fact that Clark was unable to remember every detail of what happened or what was written inside of the burnt-down parts of the book that Eiro had been using before.

"Yes, you did. And it wasn't interesting, it was annoying. Really, really troublesome, actually." The escort sighed deeply, before he suddenly heard a sound from inside of the large empty space beside them. He turned his head and saw the Salamander King approach with a brightly-burning Salamander in tow that quite obviously didn't want to be there at all.

Immediately, Clark jumped up. Seeing that he did so, Eiro followed the example and stood up properly as well as he looked at the approaching Spirit King.

"I have returned. Together with Sarius, of course." The Salamander King explained, and the spirit in question that was floating behind him slowly peaked at the two figures standing there.

"So, who is it? The boring old man or the obviously dumbass demon pretending to be smart be trying to read an empty book?" Sarius asked with a light smirk on his face, and the King turned his head around and glared at him, "Sarius, speak like that one more time and I-"

But before the Salamander King was able to finish his sentence, Eiro had already taken over the punishment of Sarius. Without hesitation, he walked up to him and grabbed the spirit's body with his hand. The flames that he gave off in distress were a bit annoying at first, but that was just the initial startle. Soon, Eiro didn't feel hurt by these flames anymore. Most likely due to the Salamander King's blessing.

The Demon stared at the Salamander that was in his literal grasp and watched as mist was created due to the air rapidly cooling down around the flaming Salamander. Of course, he immediately started to shake due to this immense cold that he wasn't used to. He obviously wouldn't die, that was clear to Eiro from the start, but it should still hurt him a little bit. Or at least annoy him, if nothing else.

"Wh-What are you doing, you f.u.c.k.i.n.g moro-"

"Be quiet." Eiro said in a strict tone as he stared deep into the Spirit's eyes, "Stop acting like a brat and recognize those stronger than you. You are going to form a contract with me. You will accompany me. You will learn to trust me, and I will learn to trust you. You will learn how to control your power and learn the things that you need to in order to become the next Salamander King." The Demon growled out before suddenly turning his head over toward the Salamander King, "Wait, that's why you wanted me to form a contract with him, right? I only remembered bits and pieces, but that was the conclusion that I managed to come to..." The Demon pointed out, and the Salamander King slowly nodded his head.

"Indeed. These are the reasons why I want you to form a contract with this child."

The Salamander stared up at his King with a confused glare, "The f.u.c.k do you mean?! You want me to form a contract with this dirty, disgusting, violent demon?! No f.u.c.k.i.n.g way!" He exclaimed, the temperature of his flames rising immensely. So much so that Eiro had to let go.

With a click of his tongue, the Demon glared back at Sarius, "Fine, then you leave me no other choice." Eiro said bluntly, and the Salamander similarly glared back. He pulled both of his arms back and quickly swung them forward, creating thick rays of flames meant to directly hit the Demon's face.

But they didn't, simply because Eiro dodged. However, this dodge wasn't a reaction. It simply happened coincidentally. Because Eiro was now kneeling down in front of Sarius, a completely opposing tactic to before.

"Please. I need your help." The Demon stated bluntly. He was kneeling in front of the Salamander and started to explain his situation, trying to only say things that he would be able to fill in with the help of his notes again, although it was a rather complex issue. But still, Eiro had to form this Spirit Contract, so it felt like it was worth it to forget a few more things in order to truly save his children from this violent spell.

Sarius stared down at Eiro as he explained the situation, and not only the Salamander himself, but also the Salamander King and even Clark were quite surprised to hear some of the things that Eiro was telling them. After all, neither had any chance to really hear that much about Eiro's past, only the rough edges basically. So now that this much more had been revealed, they all had a different perspective on the Demon.

Even Sarius had to admit to this, "So you're sayin' that you need my awesomeness to make your kids remember again? And ya specifically need me for that?"

Eiro looked up at the Salamander and shook his head, "Not really, any spirit would do, really."

With a deep glare, Sarius' new opinion of Eiro had already been ruined again, "Oi, that ain't how you ask someone for help, you f.u.c.ke-"

"Don't misunderstand. I said that I don't specifically need you specifically to form a contract with me. That doesn't mean I don't want you to. I was asked to help you, and so I will. I follow up on my words, even if I can't properly remember them myself these days. And so, let me tell you the way that I'm going to fulfill my promise to your King. I will make you stronger. You may not gain more raw power, but the more control you get, the more you can use that power. I will train you in that control. I will teach you all that you need to know about this world. After all, I may have to re-learn a lot of them as well. I will turn you into a being that is worthy of being a Superior Spirit." With deep dedication within Eiro's eyes, he locked sight with Sarius. For a moment he looked away a bit startled, but then he realized that Eiro was being completely serious.

"You're gonna make me stronger? Y-You sure you can do that?" Sarius asked with a wry smile as he stared back at the Demon, seemingly just trying to insult him, "A useless being like you that can't even hold onto their own memories! How do you think you're gonna be able to teach me anything, huh?!" The Salamander exclaimed, and Eiro slowly pushed himself off the ground. He took a step to the side and looked around, until he found a good enough spot. Eiro walked up to the hole in the glass dome that had encapsuled the spirit gateway before. All the spirits inside had left for the Spirit Realm for now, so Eiro had the freedom to do this.

He held his hand forward, and used a power that he hadn't had for long, but already figured out how to use due to his abilities allowing him to come to such conclusions at an immense speed.

The Demon opened a small rift between himself and the elemental plane of fire, and immediately used these raw, powerful flames to his advantage. He focused all this power in front of his palm onto a single point. In the end, even after a minute or two of constant compression, it was no bigger than a single small coin. 

And once he was done, Eiro slowly pushed this compressed orb of fire magic over toward the center of this glass dome as he stepped away, instructing the others to do the same, just in case. He wanted everyone to be safe, after all. The Demon kept concentrating on this compressed orb, trying not to let it blow up yet despite how hard it was. From a certain distance on, Eiro couldn't even move around anymore and had to keep his eyes shut so that he could properly control this. As such, this obviously wasn't viable for a fight... But it was still pretty useful to impress a bratty spirit.

"Eh..? What's that supposed to be? Isn't that just a small spark or something? What, are you trying to impress me with how far away you can move that little spark?" The Salamander asked. Obviously he knew that this wasn��t the case. He was just a bit nervous. He could see the amount of magic compressed into a single point, after all. 

Eiro slowly opened his eyes and glared at Sarius for a moment, before lifting his arm up. Eiro pointed his index finger into the direction of the orb and stuck his thumb up to form a finger-gun, and then slightly smirked.

"Bang."

Immediately and suddenly, the tiny, compressed orb decompressed and filled out the large dome with powerful flames close to instantly. A large amount of these flames funneled down the single opening created by the Letter L from before.

This was why Eiro advised everyone to step aside. The Salamander slowly stared at the Demon with a wry smile as he floated to the side, watching the storm of flames ravage within the glass dome. It seemed like even the Salamander King was impressed of the amount of control over the absorbed gateway that Eiro was displaying already, not even an hour after absorbing it in the first place.

"That all? That's nothing, you know? Even I can create flames that strong!" Sarius exclaimed, and Eiro turned toward him with a smirk, "Really? Well, then how about you try and stop those flames for now? Don't worry, I'm not controlling them right now." The Demon pointed out, and the Salamander lightly glared at him.

"Hmph... Fine." Sarius said, slowly floating over toward the place where he could access these flames. For now, he simply tried to push them back into the dome to deal with them, and was seemingly trying to just push them back into a small orb. Eiro was actually surprised at how well he managed with raw power, before all the flames just shot back outward again.

With a light smirk, Eiro looked at the Salamander, "You know, if you can pull flames out of an elemental plane, you can put them back as well." The Demon pointed out as he took over.

And just like that, instead of trying to compress them again, he just pulled all of them toward his palm. This little display took a majority of Eiro's mana, but it was worth it as far as he was concerned. Within a few moments, the flames all completely disappeared without a trace.